Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP)

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. cut its stake in shares of StepStone Group LP (NASDAQ:STEP) by 9.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,879 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,346 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in StepStone Group were worth $1,509,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. American International Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 1.2% during the first quarter. American International Group Inc. now owns 27,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $970,000 after purchasing an additional 322 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in StepStone Group by 10.8% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 9,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $354,000 after buying an additional 963 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 288,459 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,309,000 after acquiring an additional 1,061 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of StepStone Group by 8.5% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 15,281 shares of the company’s stock valued at $701,000 after acquiring an additional 1,195 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of StepStone Group by 9.0% during the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 28,967 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,329,000 after acquiring an additional 2,383 shares during the period. 55.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on STEP. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of StepStone Group from $41.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 15th. UBS Group raised their price target on StepStone Group from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on StepStone Group from $46.00 to $51.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of StepStone Group from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of StepStone Group from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, StepStone Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.88.

StepStone Group Stock Up 1.8 %

NASDAQ:STEP opened at $55.63 on Thursday. StepStone Group LP has a 52-week low of $25.06 and a 52-week high of $57.31. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $50.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.01. The company has a market capitalization of $6.16 billion, a PE ratio of 61.81 and a beta of 1.28.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $186.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $181.15 million. The business’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.26 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that StepStone Group LP will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current year.

StepStone Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Friday, August 30th were paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. This is a positive change from StepStone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. StepStone Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 106.67%.

About StepStone Group

StepStone Group LP. is an investment firm specializing in direct, fund of funds, secondary direct, and secondary indirect investments. For direct investment, it seeks to invest in venture debt, incubation, mezzanine, distressed/vulture, seed/startup, early venture, mid venture, late venture, emerging growth, later stage, turnaround, growth capital, industry consolidation, recapitalization, private equity and buyout investments in mature and middle market companies.